January 03, 2016
Array

On West Bengal Situation

The resolution on West Bengal was moved by Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Polit Bureau member and seconded by Ashok Dhawale, Central Secretariat member. The following is the text of the resolution. THIS Plenum of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) notes with concern the grave situation in West Bengal. The last four and a half year misrule has totally discredited both the Trinamul Congress and the government headed by it. Large scale resort to terror tactics, attacks on all sections of people including atrocities on dalits and tribals, alarming increase in sexual assaults on women, monumental corruption including the chit fund scams, rampant misuse of government machinery for partisan ends, abject failure to deliver on promises made during the elections etc have utterly exposed the real face of the ruling party leading to a strong discontent against it. Its image having been severely dented and its political credibility at an all time low, the Trinamul Congress is resorting to manipulative tactics including whipping up of minority passions. It is doing so to regain lost ground, with assembly elections round the corner. In one way or the other, the TMC continues to pander to fundamentalist forces to polarise voters. This has created a fertile ground for fissiparous forces to thrive. Though a tacit understanding with the central BJP leadership is actively underway, the TMC has been implicitly encouraging minority fundamentalism hoping to harvest votes in its favour. This has worsened the communal divide in the state. Notorious criminals are being mobilised with the open support of the police and the administration. Under the short period of the TMC rule, the economy has turned into doldrums and industry into tatters. Peasant distress has reached alarming proportions. There is an all out attack on the livelihood of the toiling people and social security. Groaning unemployment, loss of jobs and total anarchy in the health and education sectors has created an unbearable situation. Added to this is the criminal indifference of the TMC government to the continuing starvation deaths of the closed tea garden workers and the 134 peasant suicides so far. Displaying its utter contempt for democracy, the ruling party resorted to loot of votes unleashing indiscriminate terror during the municipal elections held in April and October this year. Even journalists from the mainstream media were not spared from attacks. The fascistic terror of the TMC in collusion with the police and hoodlums is continuing unabated. The leaders of the Left Front, Left MLAs, the other opposition leaders and even the leader of the opposition in the assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra had to face violent attacks of the organised gangsterism indulged in by the ruling party. Normal political activity is being undermined by the draconian measures taken by the TMC government. Recently, even the Calcutta High Court was compelled to comment that the ‘law and order situation has collapsed’ in the state. So far, 171 Left Front supporters including 164 CPI(M) cadres and leaders have been mercilessly killed by the TMC goons. The perpetrators of these heinous crimes are roaming freely with the full knowledge of the police and the administration. Countless number of cases of extortion and forcible occupation of properties of the common people has been reported in the media. Apart from the over one lakh Left cadres and supporters facing many forms of persecution, the intensive terror has been extended to people from all walks of life. This is further exposing the ruling party in the eyes of the common people. The sustained movement that our Party and the Left is conducting is drawing increasing support from the people. This campaign and movement will be intensified from January 2016, immediately after the Plenum. This Plenum of the CPI(M) salutes the heroic resistance movement by the people of West Bengal against the unprecedented terror and in defence of democracy and secularism. The Plenum welcomes the determination of the Left and democratic forces to work for the defeat of the authoritarian rule of the Trinamul Congress as also further isolating the dangerous communal forces led by the BJP.